Firstly, we have the now King Felipe´s sister, the Infanta Cristina de Borbon and her husband Iñaki Urdangarin, Duke of Palma, charged with tax fraud and money laundering after millions went missing from the non profit making Noos Foundation and both facing the prospect of prison if found guilty. It is said that the new King´s relationship has cooled with his sister after she was charged.

His other sister, the Infanta Elena, has not faired too well either, with her ex-husband, Jaime de Marichalar, brushing with the law after their 13 year old son shot himself in the foot while doing some target practise at the family estate. Under Spanish law it is illegal for a child under 14 years to handle or discharge a firearm.

The incident brought back black memories of the death of Prince Alfonso, the younger brother of King Juan Carlos. They were together in a bedroom at one of the exiled Royal family homes in Estoril, Portugal when the then 14 year old Alfonso was shot in the forehead while the boys were cleaning a pistol, he died minutes later. King Juan Carlos, 18 at the time, was home on holiday from Military Academy in Spain. It has never been confirmed exactly what happened or who was holding the gun when the accident happened.

King Juan Carlos himself has come under severe criticism after he was spotted by the international press out shooting elephants with Jeff Rann of Rann Safaris in Botswana. A trip which would have cost tens of thousands of euros, not to mention this happened while the King was Patron of the Spanish Wild Life Fund, a position which he later had to stand down from due to the bad press. Had it not been for him falling and injuring himself, resulting in him having to be rushed back to Spain, the trip may never have come to the notice of the press. But it did and at a time when decent Spaniards who had worked all their days were choosing to throw themselves from their fourth floor balconies rather than suffer the shame of having their homes repossessed by the bank for non payment of the mortgage. Not to mention, people who had lost their jobs being reduced to waiting in food bank queues for hand outs so they could feed their children.

Your may get the impression that the Spanish royals are running around like a shower of upper class twits, endulging their various lusts for money and sport, but there is little doubt that the House of Bourbon is one of the largest and oldest European Royal households. Originating from France and the Capetian dynasty the Bourbon kings originally ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century and by the 18th century they held thrones in Spain, Scicily, Napes and Parma. Nowadays, both Spain and Luxembourg have Bourbon monarchs.

The strict separation of the French and Spanish thrones was formalized in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1714, but the Borbons, as the Spanish prefer to spell the name, have been overthrown and restored several times throughout history.

King Juan Carlos is reported to have worried that he would fulfil the nickname given to him by the leader of the Opposition at the time of his coronation, “Juan Carlos el Breve” or Juan Carlos the Brief. There was more than a slight chance he would be “brief” as both his brother in law King Constantine of Greece and his grandfather Alfonso XIII lost their thrones through temporising with dictatorship.

Juan Carlos was only 10 when he was sent back to Spain after his father persuaded General Franco (a closet Royalist) to allow the move so the child could be educated in Spain rather than Italy where he had been born or the other countries such as Portugal where the Royal family sought exile after the declaration of the Second Spanish Republic. He studied in San Sebastian and finally in Madrid. He then joined the army, doing his officer training from 1955 to 1957 at the Military Academy of Zaragoza. He was on holiday from this Academy when his brother Alfonso was shot in the head. General Franco ruled as Regent to the (exiled) King of Spain and nominated Juan Carlos as the next head of state choosing to pass over his father who would rightfully have been next in line. Juan Carlos took over within two days of Franco´s death in 1975 and immediately took steps to dismantle the Francoist regime and begin the Spanish transition to democracy.

In 1981 it is widely believed that the King played a major role in preventing a coup by 200 armed officers of the Guardia Civil when they burst in to the Spanish Congress of Deputies during a vote to elect Leopoldo Valvo Sotelo as the countries new Prime Minister and held the Parliament and cabinet hostage for the next 18 hours. King Juan Carlos gave a television broadcast during the hostage taking, calling for the rule of law to be upheld and for the democratically elected government to continue in place. The coup collapsed and all hostages were released without harm. Over the coming months, various parties made clear their loyalty to Juan Carlos including not only the Spanish Socialist Workers Party but also the Communist Party.

Following his coronation, a piece of special legislation was passed declaring that King Juan Carlos would be protected from legal action in Spain. Little did they know how critical that piece of legislation would become in the years to follow.

It has long been known that the old King was an admirer of the female form but in a new biography of Queen Sophia entitled ´The Solitude of the Queen´, it is claimed that he is a serial philanderer who has bedded 1500 women. The book written by Pilar Eyre, a respected journalist and author is not being passed off as a get rich quick biography, indeed considerable notice is being taken of its content and it is being likened to Andrew Morton´s book on Princess Diana which blew the lid off the Royal marital troubles. The book portrays Queen Sofia as “a woman betrayed by the man she once loved blindly”. The book alleges that the marriage effectively ended in 1976 when the Queen “took their children for a surprise visit to her husband at a friend’s country house near Toledo. She arrived to find the king’s favourite pet dog roaming free and the home-owner frantically barring her route. Sofia burst in and caught her husband with his lover, a well-known Spanish actress”

While books can be allowed some dressing of the truth, facts are facts, and the fact is that a paternity suit has been raised against King Juan Carlos by a Catalan waiter who believes he is the illegitimate son of the former monarch. The law suit brought by Alberto Sola Jimenez states that he was adopted as a young child after his mother, Ana Maria Bach Ramon, the daughter of a prominent banking family conceived him with the King prior to his marriage to Queen Sofia.

Previous attempts to lodge paternity suits against King Juan Carlos were rejected by the courts because under Spain’s constitution “the person of the King is inviolable and cannot be held accountable”. However, at his time of abdication, while still allowed to retain his title, his protection was diminished and while the Spanish parliament passed legislation in June of this year to protect Juan Carlos from lawsuits in the Spanish civil and criminal courts, he can still be pursued in the Supreme Court.

A judge will now have to decide whether the court has the jurisdiction to hear the case. If so, the former monarch may be called to give evidence and be asked to provide a sample of his DNA.
This is not the only case pending against King Juan Carlos.
A lady now nearly fifty years of age called Ingrid Saritau, a Belgium housewife, also claims to be his illegitimate child. She states that her mother met the king in Paris in 1956 and then again some 10 years later in Luxembourg when the two had a relationship and Ingrid was conceived. This makes things a bit more complicated as Juan Carlos married Queen Sofia in 1962!
The alleged offspring teamed up and in 2012 underwent DNA tests that showed there was a 91% chance they had one parent in common. So how do a Spanish waiter and a Belgium housewife who had never met have the same parent?
To add an even stranger turn to the events, Mr Sola claims that he met with a Spanish intelligence agent who confirmed that his DNA matches that of the King and recorded Mr Sola renouncing any claim to the throne. A great relief to Prince Felipe I am sure as Mr Sola is some 12 years older than him and if paternity was proven things could be difficult with the line of succession.

What has the Royal family done to try and pull the brake before all this scandal takes them down, well, King Felipe has announced certain measures he is going to implement. He says that the monarchy must “take care to protect the dignity of the institution” to “preserve its prestige” and to “observe an honest, wholesome and transparent standard of behaviour”. He also states that “ the Crown will be more permeable and open to society and that opinions will be asked of institutions and experts.”

He has banned his parents and daughters from working in the private sector and stopped financial allowances to his sisters the Infantas Cristina and Elena. All accounts for the Royal household will be scrutinised annually by state auditors who only normally perform this duty for ministries, universities and public sector companies and organisations. The results will be published so anyone can view them.

The Royal family will now only comprise of The King and Queen, his parents King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia and his daughters Princess Leanor and the Infanta Sofia. While his sisters, the Infantas Cristina and Elena will be allowed to retain their titles, they will not be considered “Royal Family”, they will instead be referred to as “family of HM The King”.

The Infantas will not represent the Crown at public engagements except in exceptional circumstances and they will not be paid for any appearances they make. Also, their new non Royal status means that they will not be prevented from working in the private sector which they may have to do as they will now not have their income topped up from the Royal maintenance fund.

Are the new reforms enough to save the Royal family from crashing and burning? Well, that remains to be seen but suffice to say that things cannot get much worse for them and the Coronation must have been a very bitter sweet experience for the new King.